This page is a compendium of items of interest - news stories, scurrilous rumors, links, academic papers, damnable prevarications, rants and amusing anecdotes - about LAUSD and/or public education that didn't - or haven't yet - made it into the "real" 4LAKids blog and weekly e-newsletter at http://www.4LAKids.blogspot.com . 4LAKidsNews will be updated at arbitrary random intervals.

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

SUPERVISORS HIRING AN EX-DROPOUT TO LEAD L.A. COUNTY EDUCATION OFFICE

Debra
Duardo, left, joins other L.A. Unified officials, including then-Supt.
John Deasy, center, in a 2012 home visit to encourage a student to
return to school. Duardo will now head the county education office. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

March 22, 2016 :: Debra Duardo, a former high school dropout,
will become the top education official for Los Angeles County, heading
an agency that provides schooling for teenage inmates as well as for
thousands of disabled students—programs that have been criticized in
recent years.

Duardo, 53, was the consensus pick of the county’s
five-member Board of Supervisors after closed-session interviews with
three finalists last week. She is scheduled to be formally hired
Tuesday, when the board votes in open session.

She would replace Arturo Delgado, who will have served five years when he retires in June.
Duardo, a veteran administrator, comes over from the mammoth L.A. Unified School District, where she’s worked for two decades and heads the student health and human services division.

“Because
of her role at L.A. Unified, Debra is uniquely qualified to run the Los
Angeles County Office of Education,” said Supervisor Sheila Kuehl. “I’m thrilled.”

The
county’s education office also manages the payroll for nearly all of
the county’s dozens of smaller school systems. In a watchdog role it
also provides an early warning system about districts that face
insolvency.

But the county’s own programs, including services to
the disabled, also have come under scrutiny. This has contributed to a
decline in revenue. In 2011-12, the education office’s special education
programs received almost $84 million in state tax revenue. The estimate
for 2014-15 was $38 million, according to a recent outside review.

In 2012-13, the county programs employed 772 teachers. Two years later, that number was down to 408.

“There
have been some real complaints from school distrcts about the quality
of programs we put together,” Kuehl said. “Some districts have already
pulled out.”

Kuehl added that there also have been shortcomings in
classes for juvenile offenders, but said that a new, successful pilot
program showed promise and needed to be expanded. Other county-managed
operations, such as a huge Head Start effort for preschoolers, are
performing better, she said.

Duardo has spent her entire career focused on students who are troubled, disengaged from school or facing difficult challenges.

She
was such a student herself, dropping out of Hollywood High after a week
to work the counter at a Kentucky Fried Chicken. She eloped to Las
Vegas and gave birth to her first son as a teenager.

Her son was
born with a spinal disability; she decided she needed to know more to
help him and herself. Saddled with parenting duties and the night shift
at a grocery store, Duardo needed 10 years to earn a diploma and a
two-year community-college degree.

She subsequently earned a bachelor's, master's and doctorate at UCLA.

At
L.A. Unified she worked in a succession of counseling-related
positions. She inaugurated the Diploma Project in 2006, when the
district came under fire from then-Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for a dropout rate well above the state average.

That’s still the case, although the numbers have improved considerably.

In
her school district position, Duardo has focused on improving student
attendance at campuses with the worst attendance rates, concentrating
especially on kindergartners and ninth-graders. She said there have been
significant gains, but more needs to be done.

One
key to helping students, she said, is to involve families, other
government agencies and the larger community. School district counselors
are now expected to conduct home visits and often work in conjunction
with officials from other agencies.

At the district, “we fought
really hard to make sure that students in foster care are getting
support,” Duardo said. “We worked hard for data sharing with county
children’s services so that we know when a child is in foster care. They
tell us which students are taken out of a home, when a case is opened
and we give them the child’s enrollment history, grades, attendance. We
are in the third year of that now.”

She added: “We’re all serving the same children and families, and we can all do a lot better if we work together.”
Under
the county’s arcane system, the supervisors hire the superintendent and
recommend a salary, but the salary must be approved by the county Board
of Education. This board is appointed by the supervisors.

The
supervisors have recommended a salary of $267,788 for Duardo. County
Board of Education member Alex Johnson said he expected the board to
have no issue with Duardo’s hiring.

The supervisors “made an
extremely strong selection,” Johnson said. “Dr. Duardo's leadership and
personal story of triumphing over adversity is shining example for a
county office which serves young people in our juvenile halls and
camps.”